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Hector Galan, a Tejano filmmaker from San Angelo, Texas, stands out as one of today's most prolific and passionate independent directors. He has contributed over forty hours of programming to the national PBS schedule, including eleven episodes of the provocative series Frontline, two documentaries for The American Experience, and the landmark four-part PBS series Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.
His work has earned numerous accolades, such as two Imagen Awards, the Cine Golden Eagle Award, the Telly Award, SXSW Best Documentary, the Golden Apple, and the Blue Ribbon Award, alongside various festival honors. Galan has received these national and international recognitions for exploring a wide range of subjects, including migrant farm workers (New Harvest, Old Shame, 1990), race relations in the military (The Color of Your Skin, 1991), college athletics (Chasing the Basketball Dream, 1984), and foster care issues (Who Cares About Children?, 1992) for the Frontline series.
Galan has focused on the Latino experience in America, vividly portraying the culture and history of U.S. Latinos on screen. He produced two award-winning documentaries for The American Experience: Los Mineros (1991), detailing Arizona’s copper miners and their fight for equality (SXSW Best Documentary), and The Hunt for Pancho Villa (Imagen Award, Cine Golden Eagle Award).
In 1995, Galan received CineFestival’s Special Jury Award for his music documentary Songs of the Homeland, which for the first time chronicled the rise of Tejano music—an American music genre—and its connection to Mexican American history and culture. This film is now regarded as a classic and one of the most significant documentaries on Tejano music.
Together with Henry Cisneros as narrator, Galan produced and directed The Forgotten Americans, a documentary about life in the colonias—America’s poorest neighborhoods along the U.S./Mexico border. This co-production between Galán Inc. and Texas State University, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, premiered at the Smithsonian Institution and aired nationally on PBS in December 2000, presented by KLRU-Austin. Like many of Galan’s documentaries, The Forgotten Americans is widely used by universities, public schools, and organizations across the country.
Visiones: Latino Art & Culture, Galan’s latest award-winning documentary series, aired nationally on PBS from October to December 2004, marking a career spanning over twenty-five years. Galan Inc. collaborated with the National Association of Latino Art & Culture (NALAC) to produce the Visiones series, in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS), co-presented by Latino Public Broadcasting, with major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Galan has also been honored with the Cultural Arts Award from the Hispanic Caucus of the American Association of Higher Education, the Armando Marroquin Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tejano Roots Museum, and the AT&T Spirit of Communication Award. In 1996, the Texas House of Representatives flew the state flag over the Capitol in his honor, recognizing his contributions. He received the Alumni Outstanding Award from the Texas Tech Alumni Association in 1997 and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America by Hispanic Magazine. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. has hosted a retrospective screening of his work.
His most recent project is the documentary feature film Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads (2006). He is currently in post-production on a documentary special titled A Migrant’s Masterpiece, which explores the life of Archbishop Patrick Flores, the first Mexican American Catholic bishop in the United States.
Throughout his career, Galan has shared his production expertise by teaching workshops in production and editing across the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Notably, he led a KTOO-TV sponsored program teaching production and editing skills to Yup’ik Eskimo communities in Alaska. He has also conducted workshops in Guam and Hawaii, sponsored by Pacific Islanders in Communications.
As a founding board member of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), Galan has served as a mentor for the CPB Producer’s Academy. He is an advisory board member of the Burnt Orange Productions/UT Film Institute in Austin, Texas, and frequently acts as a guest lecturer, panelist, and keynote speaker at universities and national conferences nationwide.
